


Unlikely Addition

by OTTSTF



Series: Stranger Connections [11]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-20 12:32:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13717755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OTTSTF/pseuds/OTTSTF
Summary: The party is in the Wheeler basement. They're interrupted by a knock on the door.The one they find is the last person they'd expect, and his reason even more worrying.





	1. Unlikely Visitor

**Author's Note:**

> So this...  
> This is an odd one.

Mike raises to his feet following a ring of the doorbell.  
“I’ll be back in a second.” he tells the party, who have gathered in his basement for a day of fun and games.

The doorbell is pressed multiple times as he approaches it; whoever’s on the other side is pretty impatient. He looks through the peep hole, and the face he sees causes him to take a step back.  
_Why the hell..?_

“Who is it?” El’s voice emerges from behind him. She’s always ever the curious one. The fact that the party are the only people in the house add a feeling of responsibility for her: she feels she should be there with him, _just in case_.

“It’s… _Troy_.” he says.

Somehow, her eyebrows manage to raise and then furrow in a matter of miliseconds.

“Don’t do anything… it might be seen.” he says, knowing what she could be thinking.

“Mike?” the unexpected visitor calls from behind the door.  
“It’s… Troy. I don’t want any trouble, I just need your help.”

_Troy? My help? ...What?_

He shrugs, still looking at El, before turning to open the door. He slowly pulls it towards him,  and their eyes meet immediately, locking for a moment, before Troy’s eyes glance over Mike’s shoulder. He visibly gulps at the sight of El, but he looks back to Mike without saying a word.

“I… I know this is a bit shitty of me… coming here immediately asking for help… but I don’t know where else to go.”

“What the hell could be so bad that you come to _me_ for help?” Mike asks, visibly confused by the visitor.

“Can I… can I come in?” he asks, before looking around, over the street. “I don’t want anyone hearing us.”

Mike just stares for a moment, seriously questioning the sanity of Troy.

“ _Please_ , man. I’m practically shitting myself right now.” he looks as if he’s about to get on his knees and beg, causing Mike to roll his eyes.

“Fine. Basement, the others are here.”

He gulps. The thought of having to deal with all of them in one go… Well.  _I guess it’s quicker that way…_

He steps inside slowly as Mike steps aside. He takes in his surroundings as he slowly approaches the basement steps, although he stops as he’s about to pass El.

“Uh… I just… I wanna say that I’m sorry, for the way I treated you at the Snow Ball. I was an absolute asshole…”

She nods her head. Mike’s eyebrows raise.  _Troy’s calling himself an asshole…_

“I mean, I’ve always been an asshole, but the way I tried to split you both up… I understand if you don’t wanna forgive me, but just know that I regret it.” he finishes. She just stares at him, eyebrows raised. Mike stops by the stairs, turning back to them both.

“Coming?”

“Y-Yeah.” Troy responds. Mike begins descending the stairs, Troy behind him, followed by El.

  


“Finally- _What the shit?_ ” Dustin immediately reacts to the person sandwiched between.

“What, the _hell_ is he doing here?” Lucas follows. The rest remain silent, simply staring at the trio.

“ _Apparently_ there’s something he needs our help with. Something serious since he’s _apparently_ shitting himself.” Mike informs them.

“As opposed to pissing himself?” Max blurts out, followed by laughter from the three surrounding her. Mike and El slightly snicker. Will stops shortly after, seeing the lack of expression on Troy’s face, as if he’s willing to accept this and many more comments about him. He’d expect an immediate retaliation from Troy; not what seems to be an accepting silence. He nudges Dustin as if telling him to stop, which Lucas notices. They both glare at Will, who slightly points his eyes in Troy’s direction. They both turn to him, and immediately understand Will’s actions. Troy’s not usually one they’d defend at all, but the lack of retaliation _is_ concerning.

“So? What is it?” Mike asks, his arms crossed as all eyes dig into Troy. He gulps, wondering what on Earth they’re going to think of him as he describes the reasoning for his visit.

“So like I said to Mike… I know it’s pretty shitty of me to just show up asking for help but…”

“Just get to the point.” Max cuts Troy off. He swallows absent-mindedly again.

“I came across some kind of animal in the woods. Dead, but still freaky as all hell; it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“What was it, a rabbit? Squirrel?” Max continues to interrupt.

“No! It doesn’t even look like it’s from Earth! It looks like a dog, but it has a mouth for a face, with teeth covering all of it. It’s absolutely disgusting!”

Now, everyone’s silent, staring at him, running his words through their heads multiple times.   
_Dog. Mouth for a face. Teeth all over. Shit. Shitting shit._

“You know what it is, don’t you?” Troy asks them, seeing their faces.

“You said it’s dead, right?” Mike finally speaks again.

“I mean… it’s not moving. I didn’t go anywhere near it – screw that – but like… it doesn’t look like it’s breathing or anything. Anyway, I’m sure if it _was_ alive, _I_ wouldn’t be.” he answers.

Their relief is audible from all of them.  _Okay, yes, they know whatever the hell it is._

“We need to tell Hopper.” Mike finally announces. They all nod.

“ _Chief_ Hopper? He knows what they are?” Troy asks.

“Yes, if we’re thinking of the same thing.” Mike responds.

“Well… shouldn’t we be checking if it _is_ what you’re thinking?” Troy questions.

“What? Go to one of _them_ with you? No thanks. What if you’re just saying this to get us killed or something?” Lucas immediately fires back.

“Jesus, I’m not _that_ bad!” Troy tries to retaliate.

“You held Dustin at knife point to make me jump to my death.” Mike reminds him.

At that, Troy ducks his head.  _Yeah… yeah I did…_   
“I know, and I’m sorry. Really, seriously sorry.” he tells them. As he looks up, his gaze lands on El, remembering how she’d saved Mike and broke his arm.  
“I promise you there’s only one and I’m damn sure it’s dead. If it’s not then _she..._ ” he points at El, “… has my permission to break my neck.”

“Now that’s a deal I can get behind.” Max remarks.

“ _Nobody_ is going to  get hurt, all-right? We don’t need to draw any attention, so Troy will take _us_...” he points at himself and El, “…and Hopper to where that thing is. If we find it, we burn it, just like the rest of them.”

There’s a chorus of “not fair!”s from Dustin, Lucas and Max, but Will shuts them up, agreeing with the whole idea to  _not draw attention_ . Besides, he doesn’t exactly want to see one of those things  _ever_ again.

Troy, however, focuses on the last six words of Mike’s previous statement.  
_Just like the rest of them._  
“You mean there are more?” he asks hesitantly; fear clearly audible in his voice.

“There were – they should all be dead now.” Mike starts. “God, we shouldn’t be telling you _any_ of this.” he realises just how much he’s nearly saying.

“Hey! Just be glad it was me that found it. Someone else could be trying to revive it or something like some special discovery.”

At that, all but El instinctively look to Dustin, who immediately raises his hands in defeat, not saying a word.  Eventually, Mike turns to El.

“You all-right with this?” he asks, in case the mere thought of encountering more demo-dogs is too much.

“We need to get rid of it, and I’m not letting you do that alone.” she says to him, taking his hand in hers absent-mindedly, causing his trademark goofy smile to emerge, which in turn earns snickers from Dustin and Lucas. Mike immediately displays his other hand’s middle finger to them, without taking his eyes away from El.

“We better get going then.” he says. She nods her head.

“To the station?” Troy asks.

“To the station.” Mike confirms.

  


 

* * *

  


  
“Jane!” Flo greets the girl as she walks into the station.  
“Here to see your father, I assume?”

“Yes.” she responds simply, nodding her head.

“Father?” Troy whispers to Mike, who simply nods his head.

Flo immediately calls Hopper’s office.  
“Hop, I’ve got a special guest for you.” A pause, “Your daughter.” She quickly smirks before placing the phone back down.  
“In you go.” she says.

  


“What’s up?” Hopper asks El as she closes the door behind her. _Bad sign already._

“Emergency.” she says. “Troy came to Mike’s house.”

Hopper’s eyebrows raise. “Troy? The one who got the arm treatment? To Mike’s?”  
El nods her head. “Is he still breathing?”

She laughs slightly. “He’s outside, with Mike.”

“With Mike… are you sure they’re both healthy?” he asks.

“We think he found a demo-dog.” she tells him.

_Okay, now the alarms are blaring.  
_ “Shit, dead or alive?”

“Sounds dead; said it didn’t move at all, didn’t look like it was breathing.”

He sighs in relief, but then suddenly realises others may have seen this thing too.  
“ Where is it?”

“In the woods.” she responds simply.

He huffs. “The woods are pretty big, kid.”

“He’s going to take us there.”

“Right.” he says, standing from his seat. “Let’s go then.”

  


 

* * *

  


  
“Just up here.” Troy informs the three others.

T hey take a few more steps before Troy spreads his hands, stopping them behind him, which definitely surprises Mike.  _Not only is he asking for our help, he’s actually acting like he… cares?_

“There.” he points. They immediately see the beast in question, and it is most definitely a Demo-Dog.

“Wait.” El tells them, stepping in front of them all. Mike and Hopper immediately grab her arms, prompting her to turn around.

“I’m going to lift it, from here. See if it’s alive.” she tells them. They both look relived, and she genuinely wonders how stupid they think she is. Hopper’s immediate instinct was to panic at the mentioning of her powers in front of a stranger, but then he remembers the whole cliff ordeal and realises that Troy is well aware of her capabilities. 

Troy is the one who panics.  
“What if you wake it up?” he whispers. “I don’t wanna be eaten, to be honest.”

“I’m not going to let go.” she rolls her eyes. “But if it’s alive, we need to know.”

He nods his head, then turning his gaze to watch the body of said beast. It levitates suddenly, dangling from its back legs.  El holds it still for a moment, seemingly completely dead, before it slightly whimpers, twitching one flap of its mouth. The three others flinch backward slightly; Hopper immediately reaching for his gun. Before he has a chance to even aim, she’s flung it against a tree at such a force, you could hear every bone in its body break from another state.

The four of them slowly approach its now definitely-dead form.  She’s lifted it up again, dangling a lot more limp than it had previously.

“We need to get this thing burned. Give it to me.” Hopper holds his arms out.

El shakes her head. “I’ll carry it like this. It’s easy.”

“Are you sure?” Hopper’s never a fan of watching her stress herself. He generally agrees with all of them that training her abilities is a good idea, god forbid she ever needs to use them in force again, but that doesn’t stop him from disliking the idea of her straining herself for the benefit of others.

“I’m sure.” she confirms. Hopper eventually nods his head. “All-right, let’s take it to the car then. Cover it up, I’ll drop you all off and then cook the thing.”

They all nod their heads, following closely behind him; the Demo-Dog corpse following behind them all through the air.

  


 

* * *

  


  
“So… they’re alive but don’t know what to do…” Mike deduces.  
“But what if they’re learning? What if there’s more out there and they eventually wake up fully?”

“M-More?” Troy asks, dreading the mere thought.

Mike looks to him, and is tempted to just tell him to shut up; but he considers. With a sigh, he responds. “I guess we’ll have to fill you in later, if you really want to know.”

“Wheeler-”

“I know.” Mike cuts Hopper off. “But he’s seen this one, _he’s_ the one that found it, and then came to tell _me_ about it, which-”

“Which was stupid.” Hopper returns the favour, cutting him off. “Did you not think of coming to me first, kid?” he asks Troy.

“Well, yeah, of course I did, but it’s not exactly every day you see some kind of alien. I didn’t expect you to know about them, did I? I thought you’d shove me out saying I’m crazy or something.”

Hopper’s about to bark back, but he realises, shoving people out, treating them like they’re crazy… a particular  _Murray_ comes to mind, and that’s exactly what he does to that man.

“So I was going to just try to forget about it, but then Mike came to mind, and believe me, I was shitting myself at the thought of showing up at his house. But I couldn’t think of anyone else that I could go to with a story as crazy as this…”

“I’m glad you did.” Mike tells him, feeling somewhat surprised by his own words.

Troy’s surprised for a moment as well, before he sucks it up.  
“I’m just glad you gave me a chance. I’ve always been such an asshole for you, I expected you to slam the door in my face, or hell,  _punch me_ in the face for all I deserve. And my god, when I saw her…” he points to El.

Mike laughs slightly, as does Troy eventually in reaction;  El smirking . Even Hopper’s smirking slightly. Mike suddenly realises what’s going on. He’s laughing…  _with Troy_ . Never in a billion years would he have ever expected this to happen. Laughing  _at_ Troy, sure; but  _with_ ? What kind of alternate universe had he been sucked into?

Perhaps this isn’t so bad… their main school bully apparently regrets everything, according to his own words. He’s beyond curious to know what on Earth caused the sudden change in Troy, but he doesn’t plan to ask. Hopefully he himself might bring it up some time.

_Wait, I expect this to last?_ As much as that sounds great, never having to worry about Troy ever again, he doesn’t plan to keep his hopes up,  _just in case._

  


* * *

  


  
The car ride begins silently, with the Demo-Dog corpse rolling in the boot at every bump. Mike’s absent-mindedly twiddling his thumbs, worrying over the repercussions of Troy finding out too much. _What if he spreads the word? He hasn’t told anyone about El yet, at least I don’t think. What if the Demo-Dog pushes him over the edge?_

“Mike?” El calls from his side. He hums in response, turning his head to her.  
“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.” he lies, kicking himself for it despite it being a so-called ‘ _white lie_ ’.

“You look worried.” she tells him.

He bites his lip, not wanting to say it out loud in front of Troy, who he now sees turn to face him from the front passenger seat.

“Mike, man, if it’s about me, I promise you there’s nothing to worry about. I get it if you don’t want me involved; if you want me to just go and try my best to forget about it, so be it, but I can’t exactly tell anybody about this shit without sounding crazy, so my mouth is shut either way.”

Mike is, once again, amazed by this new side of Troy. But he is right; trying to spread word of any of this would probably land them in a mental asylum, so there’s nothing to worry about on that front.

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess it’s just odd; you know, suddenly talking with _you_ on good terms.” he admits.

Troy nods his head. “Yeah, I get you. I never thought this day would come, either. But now that I’ve had the time to experience it… being on good terms with you is a lot better than not.” he says, before flicking his head directly to Mike in a small panic.  
“That’s if… you think the same. Don’t wanna just assume.”

“If it weren’t for you, that thing could’ve eventually woke up and made people its breakfast. I think we owe you a chance, at least.”

A smile briefly flashes on Troy’s face. “Thanks, man.”

Mike just nods his head in response.


	2. Unlikely Talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter than I like, but I don't wanna keep you beautiful people waiting. ♥

“Will, are you serious? Why should we let him in on any of this?”

“Because he’s the one that probably just saved a bunch of asses, Lucas. And besides, I can easily put everything he’s ever done behind me if it means we don’t need to deal with it ever again.”

“Dude, what makes you think he’s not going to go back to his old self as soon as this is dealt with?”

“Dustin, did you not see his face earlier? I think there’s more to this than just finding a Demo-Dog.”

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I’m with Lucas. Besides, I doubt Mike will want him in on any of this, and isn’t he your supposed leader?”

“Max, we’re a democrac-”

“He’s okay with it.”

  


Silence falls, as they all glare at Will as if he’d just told them Christmas was cancelled.

“How do you know that?” Dustin finally asks. And it’s at that, that Will realises what he’d said, what he’d done.

“I… I just do.” he says, failing to think of an excuse.

“Dude, how? Unless you’re suddenly like El and can spy on them, you’re just saying that.”

A duck of his head in shame gives them the answer they want.

“Dude, are you serious?”

“Yes.” he admits, not shifting his glance from the thumbs he twiddle on his knees.

“Since when!?” Lucas takes over.

“I… don’t know. We’ve known for a while now, though.”

“We?”

“Mike, El and I. El and I found out after we shared a nightmare one night… she told Mike straight away.”

“ _Of course_ she did.”

Snickers all around, except for Will. _Why do they find their relationship so funny? It just makes sense._ Laughter is interrupted by the sound of the front door opening; voices emerging, currently muffled. Will jumps back to the point at hand.

“Please don’t say I told you guys. And please, _please_ , just give Troy a chance? If this goes well, it means we’ll never have to deal with him again.” Will pleads to them all.

“Dude, it’s _Troy_. He’ll just use this as more material against us!” Lucas states, as if fact.

“People can change, Lucas!” Will tries. “The way he was earlier - just taking the shit you guys threw – that’s not like him at all. Something’s changed.”

“And it can change back just as easily.” Lucas suggests.

“Not if we prevent it! If we give him a reason to stay on our side, he might not want to go back!”

“You know what? Good luck with that. Don’t come calling me when this backfires.” Lucas says as he stands, before walking to the basement’s door.

“Lucas!” Dustin calls. “Lucas don’t be like that man!” He gets no response.  
“Lucas! Jesus Christ.” he finally steps to his feet.  
“Sorry man, I need to keep him sane.”

“It’s fine, go on.” Will tells Dustin.

“I think I better go too… just in case. Sorry, Will.” Max informs him as she stands.

“Don’t be – someone needs to make sure they don’t kill each-other.” he tells her. She laughs slightly, nodding her head, before following Dustin.

It doesn’t take long for Mike to emerge on the basement steps, followed by Troy, who’s looking nervous beyond belief, and then El.

“Hey Will.” Mike says, repeated by El shortly after.

“Hey guys.” he responds. “Hey, Troy.”

“Hey.” he responds, the nervousness transparent in his voice.

“How’d it go?”

“We found it.” Mike informs him.

“Dead?”

“Well… might as well be.”

Nervousness now grows in Will. “ _Might as well be_?”

“El gave it a bit of a wiggle to make sure. It managed a whimper, twitched its mouth a little before she absolutely destroyed the thing.”

El smiles at his words; always making her sound much more awesome than she believes. Will however, looks as if he’s about to explode in fear.

“Will?” El immediately moves to his side, Mike following. Troy remains by the stairs.

“Dude, it was pretty much dead already. I’m sure we’re fine.” Mike tries.

Will gives a half-hearted smile with a head nod. “That’s as good as we’re gonna get I guess – _sure_.”

“That’s all we can _ever_ be in this place.” Mike laughs, Will following. A less enthusiastic giggle emerges from El, whilst Troy remains silent, which Will notices.

“Hey Troy.” Will calls, the other’s gaze snapping to him immediately.  
“How did you find the thing, anyway?”

“Oh… _oh_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Block._
>     
>     
>     FUN RIGHT?


	3. Perfect Team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I knew it was pretty unlikely that I'd keep the "Unlikely _____" chapter titles up.
>     
>     
>     Oh well.

“I uh… I was just out for a little walk. I came across it accidentally.” Troy tells them.

“Is there any reason you were that far into the woods, though? It seems a bit odd to just go that deep without a purpose.” Mike responds.

Troy hesitates, hums and ducks his head slightly. It doesn’t look good, even for Troy’s standard of ‘good’.  
“My parents and I… we had a bit of a falling out.” he states simply, leaving them hanging.

“Bad?” Mike eventually says as a question.

“Well… kinda. Let’s just say we’re really not on good terms.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Will tries.

Troy bites his lip, unsure for a moment. It doesn’t take long for him to decide.  
“Not just yet. It’s… too soon.”

“Hey, that’s fine, man.” Will reassures him. “But if you ever want to, we’re here. Right?” he glances over Mike and El, who both nod their heads.

Troy gives them a smile. “I’m not sure why you guys are being so supportive of me so quickly, but thank you.”

“Hey man, anybody can change. We want to embrace that, not shit on you for it.” Mike lets him know. Troy once again cracks a smile, still unable to believe his luck. He’s sure if he were in their shoes, he _would_ have been punched in the face, or perhaps had his insides mangled by Mike’s superhero girlfriend _(which he will never quite be able to believe, by the way)_.

_Talking about superhero girlfriends…_   
“Anyway, if you don’t mind me jumping to it, what  _are_ those things anyway, and how the hell do you know what they are?”

  


And so they fill him in on the idea of Demo-Dogs, Demogorgons, and the Upside-Down. If they’d tried to tell Troy any of this a few months ago, he would’ve laughed in their faces and called them nerds, morons, or something along those lines. But now, seeing one of these ‘Demo-Dogs’, and seeing how serious these guys look when talking about it all…  _Jesus Christ_ . All this, and he’s been living life none the wiser. Will went missing by means of Demogorgon and Troy had just taken the piss out of him and his friends during it. He feels like absolute shit thinking about that, but then it hits him, that this could’ve easily been him. He could’ve been taken, and he’s sure he damn well would’ve remained there, considering none of his friends are super-nerds that would figure this stuff out. He has to admit to himself, he respects these guys now,  _a lot_ . 

But his curiosity doesn’t end there. His eyes land on El, who’s remained quiet throughout most of the story.  
“If… if you don’t mind; what’s your story?”

Her and Mike immediately snap to look at each-other, and Troy can’t help but feel he’s made a mistake, asking such a question.

“Do you want him to know, El?” Mike asks her, voice softer than Troy has ever heard it. It’s as if Mike has a little toggle-switch inside his head somewhere; one default mode to talk to everyone-not-El, and then another, to talk to just El, and Troy must admit, it’s kinda cute seeing them like this towards each-other, and makes him wish he could have such a relationship with someone, some day.

“You trust him?” El breaks Troy from his thoughts, asking Mike.

“I… I think – hope, we can. This is _your_ choice though, El.” Mike responds to her question.

She seems to hesitate for a moment, not breaking her gaze from Mike, as if to read his judgement from his eyes. Eventually, her eyes snap to Troy, and he barely holds back a gulp.

“The day Will went missing, they went looking for him; Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, but they found me instead, in the woods. It was raining, so he gave me his coat and brought me here. Made that…” she points to the fort, which Troy glances at, before turning back to El. “…my first home.” she finishes off.

Troy can’t help but feel respect for Mike at hearing that – he finds a complete stranger in the woods, not knowing who she is or where she’s from, but he still provides for her without hesitation.  _That_ is amazing.

“And that’s before you knew anything about her.” Troy states to Mike as fact, who nods, confirming it. “So… where did you come from? How do you… well, have superpowers?”

Her head ducks at this question, making Troy panic about his question.  
“Hey, you don’t need to answer it if you don’t want to – I don’t wanna push you or anything.” he quickly blurts out, although El shakes her head.

“Bad place.” she states.  
“I don’t know how I’m like this, but I was kept in the lab all my life, until the day Will was taken. They made me find the Demogorgon; nobody knew it would open the gate.”

Troy suddenly understands why she seems to act so responsible for everything.  _She_ opened the gate, even if it was under the unknowing orders of some sick, twisted bastards that kept her locked up like some tool.

“So you used the gate as a distraction to get out.” he deduces.

S he nods her head. “Then they found me.”  she finishes, skipping over Benny, not wanting to get  _too_ upset thinking about him.

“Well I’m glad they did.” Troy informs her. “You’re amazing for each-other.”

A ll of them are smiling; El and Mike the most.  
“Yes we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer's block.
>     
>     
>     HELP ME

**Author's Note:**

> I've kinda got a future in mind for this fic, but I didn't want to rush it out all in one and end up ruining it.  
> Please share your opinions! Every kudo, or comment _(wink)_ makes my day that extra bit brighter. ♥


End file.
